This story has been updated to include information from Twist's Q3 investor call.
NEW YORK – Twist Bioscience reported a 56 percent increase in third quarter fiscal year 2020 revenues after the close of the market on Thursday.
For the quarter ended June 30, 2020, Twist reported $21.2 million in revenues, up from $13.6 million during the same period last year, beating Wall Street analysts' average revenue estimate of $14.2 million.
Synthetic biology revenues were $11.8 million, NGS revenues were $9.1 million, and biopharma partnership revenue was approximately $300,000.
By region, Americas revenues were $13.6 million; Europe, Middle East, and Africa, $6.4 million; and Asia Pacific, $1.2 million.
"We posted a strong quarter of revenue growth for both synthetic biology and next-generation sequencing along with solid orders and a robust pipeline of opportunities across our silicon-based technology platform," Twist CEO and Cofounder Emily Leproust said in a statement. "Our disruptive platform combined with our unique business model continues to enable us to expand our footprint among our existing markets, extend our reach through biopharma partnerships and concurrently respond to pressing market needs including demand for COVID-19 related products."
Twist was "not significantly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak" during the quarter, the firm said.
On a conference call following the release of results, Leproust noted that the firm has made important technical breakthroughs in its DNA data storage efforts. Leproust added that the firm remains "on track to launch our clonal-ready gene fragments towards the end of the calendar year."
Its research and development expenses for the quarter totaled $10.4 million, up 16 percent from $9.0 million in Q3 2019. Selling, general and administrative expenses amounted to $22.5 million, up 5 percent from $21.3 million in Q3 2019.
Twist's net loss for the quarter was $28.2 million, or $.67 per share, up from to $27.9 million, or $.92 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Analysts had estimated a loss of $.73 per share on average.
Twist used approximately 41.8 million shares to calculate per-share loss in the recently completed quarter compared to about 30.3 million shares a year ago.
The company ended the quarter with $207.9 million in cash and cash equivalents and $103.9 million in short-term investments.
Twist said it anticipated continued growth but reiterated that it would not provide guidance, due to the pandemic, and said it did not anticipate "dramatic increases or decreases as a result of COVID-19" for the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2020.